Death Stranding

when i’m in an exposition dump competition and my opponent is hideo kojima the writing for this game has the subtlety of a freight train. the gameplay makes up for it

After 100% completing it, I can proudly say I hate this game. It's slow-burn, punishing experience with some of the worst anti-climactic writings ever. But also it's one of the most unique and memorable worlds in gaming. I don't know how Kojima came up with all this but you can tell he loves games, cinema, music and actors. You either going to love this game or you going to hate every second of it. "The Walking Simulator" criticism is valid but if you set your mindset into environment, music, the tactical decision making of routes and tools - it becomes actually an enjoyable experience. The Story is biggest upset for me because of the ending but where the lore shines is the smaller stories from NPCs. Particularly Mama's chapter is one of the most emotional and unique stories in the game. Heartman as well being second place for me. Maybe the if the game had less absurdity and more focused direction into being serious I would liked it even more.

No game spoilers in this review. [h3]Music & Sound Design:[/h3] 9/10; Beautiful soundtrack underscores the slow, ethereal nature of exploring the world, and comes in when working towards a goal in the game. Music is infrequent however, and is often cut off only part-way through every song.z [h3]Story Quality:[/h3] 10/10; This is the highlight. The story is fantastic and keeps you engaged even when other elements of the game are lackluster. Overexplanation occurs at times but is easily overshadowed by the incredible story telling of the world. [h3]Story Pacing:[/h3] 7/10; The story is well paced for the most part, however it definitely feels like they wanted to increase play length by adding additional unnecessary content for the story/world-building. [h3]Replayability:[/h3] 2/10; Absolutely not. The story was the primary motivator for continued play, and short of getting amnesia and being entirely new to the game again, I would not come back to the game. [h3]Gameplay:[/h3] 5/10; Gameplay is as advertised, you deliver packages through all sorts of terrain with features making this task easier as the game progresses. If this sounds like fun to you, you'll probably enjoy it, but the amount of time it takes to get to the main combat/fun features is too lengthy, you end up building up resentment towards the gameplay before it gets fun. [h3]Polish:[/h3] 8/10; Visual bugs were present throughout when looking for them but were overall small in scale (clipping for the most part). Driving over anything but a smooth flat road is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible and needs some more ironing out. [h3]Graphics:[/h3] 9/10; Again, another main draw. The game visually looks amazing without sacrificing performance unnecessarily. Paired with the music, you get really drawn into the world. [h3]Difficulty:[/h3] 6/10; Very easy overall, but the main challenges come from annoying sources like BT interactions which are very repetitive and quickly bore. [h3]Enjoyment:[/h3] 7/10; I enjoyed it enough to finish the game, but definitely found myself hitting a wall many times throughout the process. [h3]Grievances:[/h3] 3/10; You cannot choose to play the music from anywhere but one specific location, and then it stops immediately upon leaving. This is one of the biggest downsides as the music naturally doesn't play enough anyway. Water is frustrating to cross with cargoloads/vehicles. Many tasks feel identical or are literally identical which is also frustrating. [h1]Overall:[/h1]66/100; Would recommend if it seems interesting, but not a favorite by any stretch.